knowledge unless he knows that He is living, all-knowing, and powerful, and that He speaks. He cannot, therefore, be conceived or known without His attributes, so these attributes are not other than what His name denotes. If, however, what is intended is a basic conception—that is, awareness of Him in some respect—someone may be aware of Him without it occurring to him at that moment that He is living, all-knowing, or speaks. His attributes would then be other than Him in the second sense.

Ahmad also answered that Allah has neither called His speech “other” nor said that it is “not other.” His point was that if someone says, “Whatever is other than Allah or besides Allah is created,” and supports this with revealed evidence, this expression must fall within the wording used by the Lawgiver; but it does not. If he supports it with reason, reason establishes only that things separate from Him are created. His attributes, which subsist in His essence, are not created. Those who hold that His speech is created say that it is separate from Him, whereas reason recognizes that a speaker’s speech is not separate from him.

This distinction also reveals the flaw in their proposed distinction between essential and qualitative attributes: they maintain that the essence cannot be conceived in the mind without conceiving the essential attributes, unlike the qualitative attributes. They may be asked: What do you mean by conceiving the essence in the mind, forming a conception of the essence, or similar expressions? Do you mean basic awareness, conception, and knowledge, even if only in some respects? Or do you mean the conception, knowledge, and awareness that is obligatory, possible, or complete? If you mean the first, then there is no